Mechanics
In many ways, SotIS is incredibly similar mechanics-wise to Starcraft 2. But in many ways it is not. Mechanics can be very complicated and confusing to new and veteran players alike. This page is dedicated to explaining the complexities of how SotIS works. Strength, Agility and Intelligence These three attributes, seen to the right side of your unit information bar ingame, are the three main values that determine your Damage, Health, Health Regen, Attack Speed, Armor, Energy and Energy Regeneration. Each attribute is directly connected to two of these values: Strength: Health, Health regeneration. Agility: Attack Speed, Armor. Intelligence: Energy pool, Energy regeneration. Primary Attributes In addition, each hero has a "primary attribute" that is either Strength, Agility or Intelligence. An attribute is determined to be the primary attribute of a hero because it is that hero's highest base attribute. A hero's primary attribute, in additon to scaling it's connected values, also scales the attack damage of the hero. Usually, a majority of the hero's skills will scale with it's primary attribute, though there are exceptions. A primary attribute also usually decides how a hero will be played since they're determined by it's highest base attribute. Heroes with Strength as their highest attribute tend to have extremely high Strength. This boosts their Health and Health Regen far higher than an Agility or Intelligence hero would normally have, and therefore they're usually played at least partially as a Tank hero. Armor See Armor Damage Types In SotIS, there are three damage types: Spell, True, and Physical: Spell damage includes some item attacks such as the Sunflare Gun and the majority of ability damage. True damage is a very specialized damage type that is dealt only by some items and abilities. Physical damage encompasses all auto-attacks from heroes, and some abilities. How each of these damage types do damage is also very different: Spell damage ignores armor, but is lowered dramatically by spell resist items such as the Nullifier, the Spell Buffer, or the Superheated Mantle. True damage ignores both armor and spell resist, and so essentially does direct damage to the health of the target. Physical damage ignores spell resist items, but is lowered by armor. Item Stacking and Dimishing Returns See Item Stacking & Diminishing Returns. Attack Speed Attack speed is defined as how fast your hero attacks. It is a vital part of any hero, though some benefit from it more than others. Attack speed comes with a tough balancing act of damage vs speed. If you focus entirely on building AS, you'll have no damage to back it up, and if you focus entirely on building damage, you'll have minimal attack speed to use the damage with. Furthermore, for Agility and Strength heroes, attack speed takes on a secondary role to pure damage: Item effects. Many item effects depend on an autoattack to 'proc' or 'cause the item to activate'. Increasing attack speed will proc the item effect more, thereby increasing it's power. Intelligence heroes rely mostly on their skills, and so AS doesn't matter as much as it does to Agility or Strength heroes, though it is important. The Cap The ingame attack speed "cap", or maximum speed at which specific heroes can attack, is .48 of a game tick. That's roughly 2 attacks per second. However, this attack speed is not attainable by all heroes. Heroes with slower base attack speeds cap at slower maxed attack speeds. The cap can be broken with timescale Calculation The attack speed of a hero is based off of several factors: #Agility. For every 10 points of Agility your hero gains: #*+1 Weapon damage (if the hero's primay attribute is Agility). #*+10 Armor. #*+.03% Weapon speed. #Items. Certain items increase or decrease attack speed passively or actively. #Skills. Certain skills increase or decrease your attack speed passively or actively. Timescale and Time See Timescale or Time. Category:Mechanics